Sword of Truth Fanboy Convention

[Chriz]

I personally adore these books, a fantastic story (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sword_of_Truth) of logics, ethics, truths and ideas towards modern worlds being so up their own shitty arse. For those not in the awesome know, it is a sciene fantasy series consisting of 11 books and 1 prequel novella. If you are a fan of Jordans Wheel of Time, this series is a perfect further addiction for your wordly tastes.

Breaking away from the stereotypical LOTR fantasy genre and basically strutting at its own pace, doing 'its own thing'. Being highly successful, the author Terry Goodkind has been approached many times by Hollywood about how they should butcher the series by making absolute cock up movies with Tom Cruise in the lead role. Goodkind (having the IQ over 12) said no to every ErectionWart that called to his door. Until Sam Raimi and offered the idea of a Miniseries for TV with a hefty budget, this screams more awesomeness that Bill Clinton and Ben Affleck in a Strip Joint.

What are you're favourite books guys? Favourite characters? You could'nt beat Zedd with a spikey stick he is that brillant! Anyone excited for the Miniseries? I reckon it will be a fantastic series.

[BKS]

To be honest man, I've never heard of this book, series or author until this thread. Can you elaborate on the "It's own thing" a bit?

[Dresden]

I've read most of this series (up through Pillars of Creation), but I havent read any of the newest ones, and I havent read any of it in quite a while -- but yes, it is an amazing series. Of the same calibur as Wheel of Time; I see a lot of similarities between the two.

Something this long would be hard to make into movies, unless they actually did one per book (each movie would still be like 3-4 hrs long though), but who knows, maybe they'd find an amazing director.

[Chriz]

Sam Raimi is making a Miniseries on each book.

Mr Orange, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sword_of_Truth

[Ayla]

I'm smack bang in the middle of this series now. Its been a favourite of mine for about 10 years but i had to give it up about book 8 cause there was no end in sight. Like Jordan (and lets face it, Papa Tolkien) , Goodkind meanders through the story and takes a lot of pages to say not a whole lot. The story and the characters are fantastic though so i recommend it to anyone who has a hard on for fantasy. Now that the last book has been released I''m smashing my way through them.


On the miniseries, exciting stuff. However, the excitement is tinged with a touch of apprehension cause it would be real easy to balls it up. Ah well...hopefully Sam's our man.

Oh, My favourite character is Richard - I love an implacable hero. However i have a real soft spot for Chase.

[Dresden]

Nah, Zed is always the coolest. Who else could make a whole crowd of men think they'd lost their private parts?

[Casalen]

I didn't read a huge number of them, but enough. It was okay, well written, largely imaginative. Is this the one where a barrier kept magic on only one side? If so, I liked a lot of what he did there. What I don't like as much is the political commentaries in them. Not so much that they are there; that's fine, I think scifi and fantasy is a great way to look at reality. The problem is how two dimensional the other side often seemed to end up, and how thinly disguised the allegories became.

Keep in mind I haven't read this for at least a few years, but that's what I seem to recall.

[takesoffhat]

I've read all of them, except for maybe the last one, I'm not sure if it's out yet or not. I really enjoyed the first two books, and other than Pillars of Creation (which was ridiculously boring) I liked all the others. I read the series a few years ago though so I don't have a particularly vivid memory of it. I think my favourite part of the books are the Wizard's Laws. They mostly seem to be very insightful, and I like how it always relates to the story of each book. One thing that I thought was kind of ridiculous though, is how it only takes two books to beat someone who is basically satan, and it's taking forever to defeat some mortal with a lame power.

[Seriodor]

This series is definitely amongst my favorites. The only problem I had with it was Pillars of Creation.

I've read all of them, except for maybe the last one, I'm not sure if it's out yet or not.

Confessor came out in November, it was a great way to end the series.

[RebelWithoutASauce]

I really REALLY liked the first book or two. Wizard's First Rule was just excellent. Unfortunately, I've gotten quite sick of the objectivist prattle. I honestly thought objectivism was slightly appealing until I read these books. I was extremely confused in the last few because to me they showed why some of the ethics are flawed but had the main character ranting on for pages and pages trying to justify his absurd philosophy (which essentially seems to be these days "I'm right, reason be damned") and then all of the events in the book fall into place to make him correct. I have been getting pretty enraged reading these books at how the author justifies his ethics by having it all work out in the end. This is essentially the only justification we get.

Also, another thing I have a problem with: He defeats Darken Rahl who evilly trying to conquer the midlands.....and then immediately proceeds to conquer the midlands. I originally thought that this was to demonstrate that motivation is intrinsic to judging the morality of an act but the later books seem to emphasize that [I]results[I] justify the morality of the act. This contradiction bothered me.

Also, what is with Richard having someone tortured? That was a pretty messed up thing for a 'good guy' to do. I don't care how many pages it took to explain how torture is ok.

Does anyone else feel this way about the series? I haven't read the last one so it could get good again but I feel like it will probably just get worse.

PS: I also can relate to this Pillars of Creation business, it was pretty damn boring.

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Reason: Didn't use the [spoiler] tags.

[Seriodor]

The problem I had with the books is that, whenever Richard did something, he, or somebody else, would spend 6 or 7 pages explaining why he did it, and why it was morally ok, and why everyone else was wrong.

Like in the last book where Nici spends something like 12 pages explaining why Zed's an idiot, and why Richard is a genius, and why he should trust him unquestioningly, because he just knows so much better than everyone else.

[Phrozt]

Yeah.. I really liked this series as well.. pretty amazing. The depth of the books is just incredible.

[ultimacrom]

I recall being infatuated by Wizard's First Rule and Stone of Tears, but the series degenerated from there. I read through Naked Empire, but haven't picked up the final few yet.
Did anybody read Debt of Bones, the short story in Legends?

[LandMarkMoon]

i was perplexed by this series absolutely brilliant, its like harry potter but for mature audience, with rape sex more rape death magic swords demons more sex, castration, MOWR MAGIC!!! but then came the Pillars of Degeneration /wave series